Fatah Central Committee member Aloul says party's program has reaffirmed "resistance is legitimate right against occupation."

The Palestinians have not abandoned the option of armed struggle against Israel,
a top Fatah official in the West Bank said on Monday.

Mahmoud Aloul, a
member of the Fatah central committee and former Palestinian Authority governor
of Nablus, said that although the Palestinians have agreed to launch a “popular
resistance against occupation, no one has dropped the armed resistance from his
dictionary.” Aloul’s comments were made during an interview with the private
Watan TV station in the West Bank.

He pointed out that Fatah’s political
program had reaffirmed that “resistance is a legitimate right to resist the
occupation.”

Aloul added, however, that “each option of the resistance
requires certain conditions to be carried out.” Therefore, he explained, there
was a consensus that the resistance should at this stage take the shape of a
popular struggle.

Aloul criticized the PA leadership for raising
expectations about the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“The
Palestinian leadership has committed a sin regarding the creation of an
independent Palestinian state,” he said.

“Building hospitals and schools
does not mean that we are able to declare a state. Palestinians pinned high
hopes on the messages they received from their leadership.”

Aloul
cautioned that Palestinians were now in a state of suffering and depression
because they felt that their leadership had misled them into thinking that they
were close to achieving statehood.

The Fatah official said that the
Palestinians’ red lines remained as solid as ever; the establishment of a
Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines, “liberating” Jerusalem, removing the
settlements and solving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Aloul said
that the PA decided to suspend the peace talks with Israel because they were a
waste of time. “When there is a new atmosphere for conducting the negotiations,
we will return,” he said.